Continuing from this great thread, tell us about (and show us pics of) that awesome, cool, fun playawear you're working on. Some of us like to live vicariously through other people's adventures, while others are inspired and motivated by seeing what other people are doing. It doesn't need to be a how-to or instructional guide, and it's okay if you don't have pics (though take some next time), show us what you've got!

Here's a t-shirt I made for Gratitude this year- I got some advice on the 2014 thread and hot glue worked great on getting the EL wire to stick to the PLA substrate- I hope to get started using some EL wire sequencers to create some animations next.

My girlfriend and I have done a couple projects that used neopixels and other wearables. Try and wrap your head around the arduino programming part first, if you find you can make that go (or find someone to help you with it) then sewing it into a costume is a piece of cake by comparison.

I helped on an EL-wire project that involved sequencing many years back, but unfortunately I wasn't involved in doing the sequencing so I don't have a lot of practical advice... other than to say spend a lot of time working out your animation first. Make an animated gif with as many frames as your sequence will have and get the timing to approximate what you're hoping to achieve with the project (searching the internet should hook you up with tools and tips for making an animated gif). Good luck!

I love the sewable neo pixels (being able to use conductive thread has made me much more enthusiastic about working with electronics) as well as the LED sequins, but when I last tried to do anything with Arduino I eventually have up to save my sanity and decided I was happy with just connecting the LED sequins to power and having them light up.
I'm in the middle of sewing up a raw silk jumper type dress I'm going to embellish with various brass pieces-mainly two wings the size of my hand. If I finish in time it will go to Mardi Gras first, then get packed away for the playa.

Very cool jacket! My girlfriend and I are still each in the "ideas swirling around" phase this year's playawear projects. We bounce the ideas off each other, adding things and sanity checking as needed, then we move forward on the stuff we're excited about and have the time/money to do.

Loren Ipsvm wrote:Does anyone here have any experience using sewable Neopixels and Gemma Arduino for playawear?

trilobyte wrote:Try and wrap your head around the arduino programming part first, if you find you can make that go (or find someone to help you with it) then sewing it into a costume is a piece of cake by comparison.

The glorious Lady Ada provides a library of code free of charge on Github and learning guides on her website. It is a great starting point if you are not too familiar with Arduino and neopixel programming.

First time messing with some EL wire, going to work on some more elaborate knots to festoon my playa garb..
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We've been talking through our 2015 playawear ideas and dreams for months now, but in the last week or two a few have started to form up and move forward.

That pic looks like some crazy instagram filter, but it's actually just something I snapped when the white lights were down and the colors looked really cool on the test coat pattern cutouts for the airship pirate outfit project. While my girlfriend and I have been making playawear for years and are pretty good at coming up with fun stuff, we still make test versions. That lets us fuck around with new ideas and work out designs before we sink a lot of money into more expensive fabrics. This was the last of the black denim roll we'd been using, so this weekend we'll have to wander on over to the fabric store to re-supply, as well as look around and see what cool stuff they've got.

We had a very successful fabric store run, and were able to find many of the materials we'll need for a March Hare outfit..

The mask is a handmade piece my girlfriend got from an artist we met and connected with at the Edwardian Ball, and this piece will be an over-the-top awesome outfit that will do the mask justice. I found exactly the right buttons, but the hussar style coat will use LOTS of them and our local place didn't have that many... so they're on order and should be here long before we need them. We also loaded up on threads, I found exactly the color silk threads and heavy duty threads we'll need, plus we stocked up on thread we could use more of for the airship pirate outfit coming later in the year. We managed to find the right color we wanted for the braided cord, but not the right weights... so we still have to sort that out as well as some of the other hardware (clasps and stuff). I'm really excited for where this is heading!

The whole thing is for Pandorra. The airship pilot/pirate outfits will be for me, but I don't imagine any of that will be done in time for the thing in April. No worries, it's not like I don't already have fun steamy stuff to wear.

Here's a clip of my girlfriend showing off the finished March Hare outfit/Huzzah jacket in the light of the Serpent Mother at last night's Steampunk Masquerade event in Oakland. She ducks out of frame at the start, but then shows it off in the end

Here is some more EL wire goodies and some flat knots to sew on daytime wear. The EL wire knots are going to be stitched on a black felt panel with sewn pockets for the controllers, that panel will be able to be pinned on a coat or shirt for nighttime fun.

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